I will welcome everyone today to the Viva refinery in Corio. Obviously, we wish we were here under better circumstances, but we are very pleased to have here today the Prime Minister, the Minister for Energy, Lizzie Coker, the member for Corio, the member for Lara, Ella George, who is the member for Lara, and Scott Wyatt, the CEO of the Ampol Palasan as well. We are enormously thankful to in the midst of all that has occurred here. There have been no injuries, no one was hurt as a result of the incident, and that is very much a source of gratitude from the perspective of our community. But with no further ado, let me hand over to the Prime Minister.
Well, thanks very much to you then. This has been an opportunity for me to talk directly to the workers here at Viva. The good news is that serendipitously, the Minister said that no one was injured in this incident that occurred. And that is a tribute to the professionalism and to the management issues that have been put in place to deal with an issue, an incident like this. There was also an opportunity to thank the fire brigade and officials who were here as well dealing with this issue and a chance to say thank you for what you do each and every day. This is an incident that obviously is regrettable, particularly given the timing in which it has occurred. But the advice that we've received today is that 80% of diesel production is continuing. 80% of aviation fuel is continuing ongoing. It's been slowed down just slightly because of the circumstances which are there, but 60% of petrol production is proceeding today as well. We hope, of course, as does the company, that that ramps up over the coming period as well. In addition, can I say that it's good that we can announce that BP have joined the companies that have an agreement with Export Finance Australia to reach a commercial arrangement for additional supplies that might be available. This follows the 100 million liters of supply we're able to secure in two lots, one from Brunei and one from Korea over the past 24 hours. That has been positive, that will add to the supply at a time to deal with what the whole world is dealing with, which is the impact of the Middle East conflict is having a direct impact on our region, but indeed on the entire global economy. Our job is not to pretend that we're immune from the impacts which are there. They are real as they are right around the world. Our job is to do as best as we can to restrict the impact that this will have, and that's precisely what we are doing each and every day. In addition to that, I've been able to thank President Widodo of Indonesia for the increased access that we have to fertilizer. This is a significant addition, more than 20% of Australia's urea needs in addition to what was already available has been agreed to be supplied from Indonesia, and that is a product directly of the warm relationship that we have with our friends in Indonesia. So, I'll hand to the Energy Minister before we're happy to take questions, but I do want to thank Viva for showing us around today, for the ongoing work that they're doing. They're working around the clock to meet Australia's needs.
Thanks very much, Prime Minister. Well, the world's trying a lot at fuel supply in Australia in particular at the moment, and this has been a very negative incident that we've had to manage, but the good news for Australian people is that government and industry are coming together and managing this in the best interests of Australia and the Australian people. And the fact that we can update the Australian people today and say that 80% of diesel and jet fuel here continues under production, 60% of petrol with Viva working very hard to try and get that 60% back up to normal levels in the coming period, can I think give Australians that reassurance that while this is an event that everyone would wish hadn't happened and was really bad timing, really is being managed as best as is possible. I want to thank Scott and Viva from the first call at 11:00 p.m. or thereabouts two nights ago through the last 24 and 48 hours in constant contact, government and industry working so closely together. And as the PM said, this is I think showing that Australia's fuel supplies in the most difficult and risky circumstances internationally are being managed as well as they possibly can be across government and industry. Just some people will be interested in Avgas, which is the public fuel, not aviation fuel, but just used for the smaller planes, private planes. We have good stocks of that, 116 days worth of stock on that in hand, so that has been also affected here, but we only use 6 million liters of that a month, so I think that Australians who are worried about those smaller planes, private planes, can take reassurance that our stocks are really good. Prime Minister's announcement of BP joining Viva, Ampol, IOR, and Park as companies participating in the EAP scheme going and cargoes for Australians is a very good one. BP is ready to go. BP announces kicking in well for Western Australia. They're a particularly important supplier of fuel in Western Australia, and I know Western Australians can take some reassurance that they'll be out now getting cargoes like the ones that the Prime Minister referred to, which is very important, particularly in relation to the Prime Minister's visit to Brunei to secure those extra 100 million liters, 50 million liters from Brunei and 50 million liters from Korea was very, very important, and we'll obviously we'll make further announcements. As you know, every Saturday I hold a press conference I announce and update the Australian people how much stock we have in hand of diesel, petrol, and jet fuel in the country, how many ships are on their way to Australia, how many billions of liters are locked in for the next four weeks. So, I've been doing that every Saturday for the last many weeks. We'll do that again tomorrow, so there'll be further updates tomorrow on that that is designed to give Australians full visibility as to the fuel supply situation. I've done that for weeks now, and we'll do that again tomorrow, and we'll provide further updates on that. Again, I just want to reiterate the Prime Minister's thanks to the emergency services we were just with, some of whom we just had a good chat to, and to Viva and the workers here during the most difficult circumstances have responded in a really Australian way, rising to the challenge and making sure that this is in the best interests of Australia and the good cause.
Yeah, well, on behalf of team here at Geelong and and pretty branchy, I'd like to warmly welcome and thank Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Bowen, and state members for joining us here this morning. The outreach from federal and state level government over the last 36 hours has been overwhelming, and indeed our customers and suppliers and the general community has been generally overwhelming, and been the office of support and help that has generally been with us through this time has been has helped helped us a lot, so thank you for all of your support. We prepare and take great steps to ensure these sorts of events never happen, but we also think we also take a lot of a lot of preparation to ensure that we do that we recover well, and we think people are safe and that they're safe, and that was played out in spades over the last 36 hours. I know I was able to be here quite early on the scene to see the responders come together with with our team, manage the the situation to contain it, ensure it didn't spread, keep people safe, and ensure that we were able to recover from the incident, which because we have done over the last period of time and the process now of truly making making the area safe. That's been been our number one focus is just obviously responding to this here to keep people safe. And I'm so pleased to believe that that's been that's been the case. Obviously, we now start to look forward to how we go forward from here. We still have some work to do to fully contain the area before we're in a position where we can start to be confident to be able to safely lift production. As the Prime Minister said today, we are still a lot of units were unaffected by this. We're still making we're still progressing with making certain increases in production. 60% of petrol we'll have to lift that over over the coming weeks. And as I've said previously, any shortfalls in production we're very confident we can cover that with our our import program, which is quite substantial over the next next couple of months. So, it's been yes, it's been obviously a challenging event for our team, such as a shocking incident. I'm so pleased that the team is safe, and we've been able to take great care of care of our people.
Prime Minister, you just told us that petrol production here has almost halved. What's the government's assessment of what that means for fuel supplies? Should people start be starting to think about moving to level three restrictions? Is that a conversation you're preparing to have?
But the government's putting place the four stages in order to plan and in order to prepare for circumstances which are predominantly impacted by global events, not by events here. So, the event here will not lead to any change. We'll give an update tomorrow about fuel supplies that are on hand. Fuel is continuing to come in and indeed with ESA's announcement of additional supplies that is very positive.
What about the the fact that shortages? Do you expect more shortages, particularly in Victoria?
The fact that 60% of petrol production is continuing is actually very positive given the circumstances. People have seen fuel with me, but we also the the visuals of what was a a serious fire. The fact that 80% of diesel is continuing and 80% of jet fuel is continuing as well has been a slight slow down there because of this incident, but that is very positive going forward.
Prime Minister, in regards to the Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump has told Sky News I'm not happy with the Australians because they were not there. We didn't ask them to be there. What does Donald Trump mean, the US President, when he says we asked them to be there?
Well, that's a question for Donald Trump by definition. But I've got myself a note. I've seen the Sky News footage and the way that the question was asked and the way that the follow-up was asked as well and there wasn't an answer given.
So, why won't you call the Prime Minister? Hang on. One at a One at a time. Prime Minister, how do you verify Australia's position given Donald Trump has said Australia's not helping?
Well, that's a question for President Trump.
Why Why haven't you called President Trump or attempted to call him to clarify precisely?
We've engaged with the US administration constructively. We'll continue to do so.
So, just to clarify, Australia did not ask for help in any way from the US?
Well, I refer to my previous answers day after day after day when I've been asked they're exactly the same. There's been no new requests at all. And indeed, President Trump has himself said that he has got this and he has made that position clear. There's been no change.
Prime Minister, does it surprise you when you hear this time and time again? Donald Trump has just said it again. We're not helping.
That's a a question for President Trump, but what is my job is to engage constructively with the US administration. That's what we do.
Prime Minister, was there any informal request from the US President?
I've I've answered that a number of occasions. The answer is the same. We didn't help when the US asked. I've seen the footage and the way that the question was was asked. Australia's position is the same today as it was yesterday, the same as it was the day before.
The Prime Minister said we were asked them to be there. The the quote from the US President is we asked them to be there. That's a direct quote from the US President. That's pretty black and white he said.
Well, I've answered the question.
Given the economic implications of what we're seeing around the world and on Australia, are you committed to delivering the budget?
Yes, we're committed to delivering the budget on May 12. Work is continuing. The budget will be settled later than usual because we're living in turbulent times. There are different announcements every day from overseas about the circumstances of what is happening in the Middle East. There was a new announcement today that we welcome that the US has brokered a peace between Lebanon and Israel. We call upon all parties to agree and to abide by this ceasefire. That's what we want to see. We want to see a de-escalation. We want to see the Strait of Hormuz open. We want to see the freedom of navigation that is so important for global trade that we all rely upon around the world. We want to see that continuing to be available in the future. This is an impact on the other side of the world that has had an impact particularly on our region because it is our region, the Asian region, that particularly receives the product through the Strait. And so, the disruption that has occurred has had a major impact on the global economy. We're not immune from that. What we are doing is doing everything that we can from changing the fuel standards here in in Australia to allow the more domestic use of fuel that would normally be exported. By engaging with international partners to secure supplies of fuel and fertilizer and other products. By making sure as well that at level two we're asking that Australians do what they can to conserve fuel going forward. We're putting place the four stages which are there. We're communicating that to the public tomorrow. I I will be standing up once again and speaking of the number of ships that are on their way to Australia, the different levels of fuel in terms of days that are on hand in reserves. We've released 20% of our reserves. I mean, thank goodness we brought our reserves back to Australia from the United States. Had we not done that, then there would have been a lot more pressure on the system.
Prime Minister, does this incident maybe change your mind? You obviously you've been an advocate for the eventual onshore refinery in Australia. We need more more of a refinery in Australia. Does this Does this incident maybe change your mind on that?
Well, nothing's changed my mind. There were six refineries in Australia when we left office in 2013 and when we came back there were two. That was an error. One of the things if you look at what my government has done whether it is the work that we've done in Whyalla, the work that we've done in Manildra, the work that we've done in Gladstone, in Kahuna, in Tasmania, my government hasn't sat back and watched important industries just close. What we've done is been prepared to intervene. We have very much a future made in Australia agenda. It's about making sure that our economy is more resilient. And one of the themes of the budget on May 12 will be resilience. Resilience in two forms. One, making more things here in Australia, leaving us less vulnerable to international events, but secondly as well, how do we give Australians a stake in our economy? And that is important and important component of that as well.
